Vancouver mayor, Jewish group accuse newly elected councillor of antisemitic posts
Vancouver Mayor Ken Sim and some Jewish community groups are condemning comments made on social media dating back to 2021 by newly elected city councillor Sean Orr.
In a Wednesday morning news conference, Sim and Ezra Shanken, CEO of the Jewish Federation of Greater Vancouver— which describes itself as the community's centre for Jewish philanthropy — asked Orr to address his statements and publicly apologize.
Specifically, the foundation called on Orr to retract a comment posted in August 2021 on X, formerly known as Twitter, that stated, "Everyone knows Vancouver City planners are controlled by a secret cabal of Jews who have a bunker in the earth's core fml."
In a statement Monday, Orr said his tweet was taken out of context, and was meant to be condemning "an antisemitic dogwhistle" used by the poster he was responding to.
Newly-elected city councillor Sean Orr was asked to apologize by Mayor Ken Sim and the CEO of a Jewish group on Wednesday over a post he made in 2021. Orr says the post was meant to call out another poster's antisemitic dogwhistle though, not feed into it. (X)
He said his post was sarcastically quoting a joke by comedian David Cross, who used similar wording while talking about the stereotypes he faced growing up Jewish in the American South.
"It's unfortunate that this was taken out of context and misrepresented," Orr said of his tweet. "My [campaign] platform called out anti-semitism by name & committed to fighting it, along with Islamophobia and other forms of racism."
On Wednesday, Sim said his news conference was "not political", and Shanken said he was hurt by the posts.
"It hit me in the pit of my stomach," said Shanken. "We are yet a sarcastic comment for this individual. We are a butt of this individual's joke."
The federation, along with national Jewish groups like B'nai Brith Canada and the Centre for Israel and Jewish Affairs, also condemned Orr for accusing Israel of committing acts of genocide following the Oct. 7, 2023, attack by Palestinian militant group Hamas.
Ken Sim, surrounded by city councillors and members of the Jewish community, held a press conference about online statements made by newly-elected councilor Sean Orr. (CBC News)
The Coalition of Progressive Electors (COPE), Orr's party, said their candidate has been a consistent voice of opposition to fascism and antisemitism, and said the attacks on Orr were a "bad faith attempt to smear him" for his opposition of Israel's war in Gaza.
Orr topped the polls in last week's byelection, with the two candidates belonging to Ken Sim's ruling ABC party coming in sixth and seventh place.
WATCH | Orr talks about his plans in council:
A different Canadian Jewish organization is standing by Orr, condemning what it called "disingenuous attacks" launched in "bad faith."
"Councillor Orr has shown integrity and courage in condemning Israel war crimes," said Independent Jewish Voices (IJV) in a statement released Tuesday.
The IJV identifies itself as a grassroots organization representing Canadian Jewish voices advocating for peace in Gaza.
Hashtags

Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles

Business Insider
42 minutes ago
- Business Insider
Mark Cuban says Bluesky's echo chamber is hurting engagement — and boosting Elon Musk's X
Mark Cuban criticized Bluesky for becoming an echo chamber, warning it was driving some users away. Engagement on Bluesky has plunged since February, with far fewer daily unique users. Cuban questioned BlueSky's future, citing vanishing nuance and an absence of some topics. In a series of Bluesky posts, the billionaire investor and entrepreneur criticized the platform for fostering an echo chamber that he said was driving users away and inadvertently boosting traffic back to Elon Musk 's X. "The lack of diversity of thought here is really hurting usage," Cuban wrote, linking to a Washington Post opinion piece headlined "BlueSky's decline stems from never hearing from the other side." Once known for "great give-and-take discussions on politics and news," Cuban said Bluesky had become a monoculture where dissent was unwelcome and nuance was vanishing. "Engagement went from great convos on many topics, to 'agree with me or you are a Nazi fascist,'" he posted. A graph of Bluesky's unique daily posters supports his concern. On February 28, Bluesky had more than 1 million unique users daily. Since then, engagement has plummeted, with June 7 and 8 hovering well below that peak at about 670,000 daily posters. The Musk factor BlueSky's rise accelerated following the election of President Donald Trump, whom CEO Musk backed financially, and after X introduced new terms of service. Many X users migrated to Bluesky, with some 2.5 million joining in one week in November. Some were seeking a friendlier, more open platform with less hate speech and misinformation, and more control over what content is shown in their feeds. A startup, BlueArk, even sprang up to help users migrate their X/Twitter histories to Bluesky, porting over millions of posts and creating the illusion of continuity on a new platform. At the time, Cuban told Business Insider he preferred Bluesky over alternatives due to its variety of content and growing engagement. Now, some of the earliest and most visible converts, including Cuban, are questioning whether the migration created a new community, or just repackaged the same silos. "Why would anyone stop using Twitter if the only topic that is acceptable to you is news and politics?" he asked. Cuban also criticized the platform's culture, saying: "The replies on here may not be as racist as Twitter, but they damn sure are hateful." Posts about AI, business, or healthcare — traditionally strong areas for Cuban — often gain little traction or were met with outright hostility, he added.

Business Insider
an hour ago
- Business Insider
Mark Cuban says Bluesky's echo chamber is hurting engagement — and boosting Elon Musk's X
Mark Cuban is sounding the alarm on Bluesky's declining engagement — and he's not pulling his punches. In a series of Bluesky posts, the billionaire investor and entrepreneur criticized the platform for fostering an echo chamber that he said was driving users away and inadvertently boosting traffic back to Elon Musk 's X. "The lack of diversity of thought here is really hurting usage," Cuban wrote, linking to a Washington Post opinion piece headlined "BlueSky's decline stems from never hearing from the other side." Once known for "great give-and-take discussions on politics and news," Cuban said Bluesky had become a monoculture where dissent was unwelcome and nuance was vanishing. "Engagement went from great convos on many topics, to 'agree with me or you are a Nazi fascist,'" he posted. A graph of Bluesky's unique daily posters supports his concern. On February 28, Bluesky had more than 1 million unique users daily. Since then, engagement has plummeted, with June 7 and 8 hovering well below that peak at about 670,000 daily posters. The Musk factor BlueSky's rise accelerated following the election of President Donald Trump, whom CEO Musk backed financially, and after X introduced new terms of service. Many X users migrated to Bluesky, with some 2.5 million joining in one week in November. Some were seeking a friendlier, more open platform with less hate speech and misinformation, and more control over what content is shown in their feeds. A startup, BlueArk, even sprang up to help users migrate their X/Twitter histories to Bluesky, porting over millions of posts and creating the illusion of continuity on a new platform. At the time, Cuban told Business Insider he preferred Bluesky over alternatives due to its variety of content and growing engagement. Now, some of the earliest and most visible converts, including Cuban, are questioning whether the migration created a new community, or just repackaged the same silos. "Why would anyone stop using Twitter if the only topic that is acceptable to you is news and politics?" he asked. Cuban also criticized the platform's culture, saying: "The replies on here may not be as racist as Twitter, but they damn sure are hateful." Posts about AI, business, or healthcare — traditionally strong areas for Cuban — often gain little traction or were met with outright hostility, he added.

Miami Herald
an hour ago
- Miami Herald
Elon Musk's feud with Trump is hurting an unexpected investment
Just think, this all started with a picture of a man carrying a sink into an office building. It has been a winding road for Elon Musk since a court ruled he had to buy Twitter after he attempted to pull out of a legally binding agreement and the company sued to force Musk to buy it for $44 billion. Despite his initial trepidation, Musk seems to have really enjoyed his time running his favorite social media platform. Related: White House responds to the latest Elon Musk jab Musk is the most popular person on what is now called X, with nearly 221 million followers. Thousands of supporters, and adversaries, interact with his every post and reply. This week, one of those supporters became a very powerful adversary when Musk began attacking President Donald Trump. Musk, who says Trump would not have won the presidency without his help, slammed his former boss' main legislative agenda, and most shockingly, tied the president to Jeffrey Epstein. While this type of unpredictable mayhem is exactly what keeps people hooked on X, the Wall Street Journal reports that Musk's tweet storm may have cost xAI, X's parent company, a lot of money. Deal makers from Morgan Stanley were in the process of wooing investors as part of a $5 billion debt deal when Musk seemingly began burning his most valuable bridges to the White House, according to a new report. The bank had gathered some of xAI's top executives on a conference call to talk about the company and its role in the world with Trump as an ally in the White House. Between January and April, Morgan Stanley was able to sell about $11 billion of X debt, the Wall Street Journal reported, without incurring major losses. But now, the Journal reports that investors who followed Musk's breakup with Trump live are now worried about what the new reality could mean for the company. Related: Tesla execs question Elon Musk over controversial X post Musk's relationship with Trump made xAI more attractive, but now, not only does Musk not have Trump's backing, but investors are also worried that Trump may retaliate against Musk somehow, according to the report. Potential xAI investors aren't the only ones who are worried, however. Tesla shares dropped 7% in the aftermath of Musk's tweet storm. Morgan Stanley is looking to sell about $5 billion in debt to finance the building of data centers to train its AI program, Grok. The bank had been looking to sell the debt at about 100 cents on the dollar, but after the spat, Xs outstanding debt traded down several points to 95 cents on the dollar. xAI is also in the midst of arranging a $300 million stock sale, a transaction that would value the company at $113 billion. xAI reported a $341 mllon loss in the first quarter of the year, but expects to be profitable within a few years. Twitter has always been a place for robust political discussion. A Pew Research study from May 1, 2020, to May 31, 2021, found that one-third of the tweets on the site were political. But over the past two years, he has discovered the true power of social media and has used it to promote his political agenda. More Automotive news: General Motors delivers surprising business updateFord reports surprising news amid Tesla turmoilApple creates clever way to stop car thieves Musk has relaxed moderation standards, so the civility of the discourse has taken a dive. This year, only 20% of Democrats on X reported having a mostly positive experience, while 40% said they had a mostly negative experience. Meanwhile, 51% of Republicans say they have a mostly positive experience, while just 11% say they have a mostly negative experience. Related: Elon Musk, Tesla finally get some good news out of China The Arena Media Brands, LLC THESTREET is a registered trademark of TheStreet, Inc.